Honey Garlic Chicken Recipe - Gonna Want Seconds (2024)

My sticky sweet and savory honey garlic chicken will leave you licking your fingers and fighting your family for the coveted last piece. You may want to grab some extra napkins for this one!

There are two types of people in this world – those who cut everything on their plates with a knife and fork and those who make a mess of their napkins, diving into all the sticky, messy finger foods the way they were intended to be! If you fall into that finger-lickin’ category, you’re going to love my honey garlic chicken.

My version of this recipe starts with whole chicken thighs, then uses the honey garlic sauce in a flavorful, longer marinade process so the chicken itself is completely infused with all the sweet and savory flavors. Don’t worry, though, you won’t lose all the crunch because my oven-browning technique still yields a nice brown crust.

Since I make Honey Garlic Chicken thighs, with the skin on, we really don’t need any added oil. Chicken thighs are always juicy and tender, not easily overcooked, and have a richer chicken flavor than chicken breasts.

They were a no-brainer when deciding what to use for this dish.

Ingredients

• Honey & Brown Sugar – honey and brown sugar, create a lovely contrast to the salty, deep flavors of the soy sauce (a requirement for any good Asian-inspired marinade), while helping create the characteristic thick, sugary coating on the chicken you’ll be happily licking off your fingers later.
• Soy Sauce
• Rice Wine Vinegar –The acid comes in the form of rice wine vinegar, a nice, mild vinegar that imparts a classic Chinese flavor without overpowering the other flavorings.
• Garlic –There’s also a generous tablespoon of chopped garlic (which you probably guessed was coming, based on the name of this dish), that adds its own subtle sweetness and spiciness, along with a sharp quality that adds an extra flavor layer to the sauce.
• Black Pepper
• Italian Seasoning –My “secret ingredient,” which is a deviation from traditional Asian flavors, is dried Italian seasoning. I’m a big fan of this Mediterranean blend, with all the bright and earthy flavors from herbs like basil, oregano, thyme, and rosemary. They pair really well with the honey (there are even some wonderful co*cktails that capitalize on this complementary relationship), and it makes my version stand out from other honey garlic chicken recipes.
• Chicken Thighs
• Cornstarch
• Parsley

How to Make Honey Garlic Chicken:

You’ll only need about 4 – 6 hours in the marinade, and I don’t recommend going much past that to avoid over-marinating.

One of the other things to note about my recipe is that I use a simple but effective technique for browning the chicken in the oven rather than making a honey garlic chicken skillet version.

I find pan-browning to be altogether too tricky for this dish and can easily (like always) burn the chicken due to the marinade’s high sugar content.

I start off the chicken, skin side down, at a high temperature in the lower part of the oven then flip it over halfway through the cooking process. This eliminates the problem altogether and leaves you with a juicy, nicely browned piece of chicken.

I advise sticking with the oven method or making a crock pot honey garlic chicken (see my instructions below in the Recipe Notes) if you want to avoid a mess in your pan, inedible chicken, or an annoying smoke alarm.

All that’s left is thickening the sauce with your cornstarch slurry, and dinner’s ready! I’ve made this recipe for years, so it’s a tried-and-true family fav.

I usually throw some rice in my rice cooker and steam some broccoli for an easy supper. Just a little time to marinade, then your oven does most of the work . . . and, I suppose, if you must, you can enjoy it ALMOST as much if you use a knife and fork to eat it.

Recipe Notes for Honey Garlic Chicken:

• Slow cooking – Sometimes I just don’t feel like heating it up the kitchen, and this recipe can easily be altered to make a honey garlic chicken crock pot version.
  • To make a slow cooker honey garlic chicken, you’ll skip the marinade step.
    1. Just place the chicken thighs, skin-side up, into the bottom of your crockpot, then pour the marinade over them.
    2. Bake the chicken on low for about 6 hours.
    3. Once the chicken’s done, remove the pieces to a plate to keep warm and (carefully) pour all the juices from the crockpot into a saucepan.
    4. You’ll heat it and thicken it with the cornstarch slurry just like in the original recipe.
• Pan options – I prefer to make this dish in a large ovenproof skillet so I can bake the chicken and make the sauce in the same pan. Only one dish to clean! If you don’t have an ovenproof skillet, though, you can use a baking dish and pour the sauce into a saucepan to thicken on the stovetop (just like the honey garlic chicken slow cooker version).
• Spice it up – If you want to add a little (or a lot of) heat to this dish, you can add 1 ½ teaspoons of red pepper flakes and/or an equal amount of Sriracha. Just make sure you wash your hands really well to get all the spicy stuff off your fingers before you touch your face!

How to Store and Make Ahead

• How Long Can You Keep This In The Fridge?This can be stored in the fridge for 3-4 days.
• Can You Freeze This?Place leftovers in a resealable storage bag and it can be kept in the freezer for 4 months.
• Make-Ahead Tips:Allot a time for marination or cook ahead and reheat.
• Food Safety: If you’d like more info on food safety check out this link.

More Delicious Chicken Recipes

• Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore
• Chicken Lombardy
• Parmesan Crusted Chicken
• Chicken Scarpariello
• Instant Pot Lemon Chicken

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